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The first 18 years of my humble life were spent frolicking in the wilds of the Curve Lake First Nations, a small Ojibway community located in central Ontario. It was fairly a happy existence where I climbed trees, played in the lakes and, at the appropriate age, was shocked to discover most of the girls on the reserve were my cousins.

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It's the eternal struggle in politics: "Yeah, it's a great idea. But how do we pay for it?"

In a perfect world everybody would have everything they need and lots of it. Those on the political left would like to work towards that ideal in this astral plane. Those on the political right, it seems to us, are more inclined to keep it all and share it only with their friends, and the heck with everybody else.

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Charlie Smoke may be a man without a country, but he's not a man without a nation.

Of Mohawk and Lakota ancestry, the 39-year-old faces a charge under the Immigration Act for working without a visa after he was found to be employed as a science teacher's assistant in Regina without proof of Canadian citizenship. He also faces a provincial charge for using a false social insurance number (SIN) to land the job.

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When Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault decided to change his instructions to third party managers in late November, business owners immediately discovered their bills weren't getting paid.

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Contamination of the town of Walkerton's water system by E. coli in May 2000 that resulted in seven deaths and 2,300 ill people, some of whom may experience permanent health effects, raised an outcry nationwide.

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Because of the uncertainty resulting from the collapsed constitutional talks, the Aboriginal leaders were uncertain as to what strategies would follow in their journey to achieve some form of self-government.

With visible signs of wear, shock, disbelief and disappointment and still reeling from the reality, the Aboriginal leaders endeavoured to muster enough energy and courage to answer questions during a press conference held at the conclusion of the FMC.

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Almost two weeks ago now, Jim Many Bears took what little money had had and bought two $99 bus tickets from Gliechen to Ottawa.

Over the next few days, Elder Many Bears and his granddaughter, Diane Brass, sat in cramped bus seats across better than 3,000 kilometres, travelling to Ottawa to ask blessing for the First Ministers Conference.

"I prayed that they should have good thoughts," says the Blackfoot elder. Unfortunately, his prayers were not answered.

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The federal government failed to ease out of treaty responsibilities at the First Ministers Conference, FMC, on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters and in that sense, the FMC is not a failure for the protection of Treaty rights, said Chief Eugene Houle.

Chief Houle of the Saddle Lake First Nations, who was a participant at the Treaty Six forum, which was held on the same days as the FMC meeting, commented on the FMC outcome, in a telephone interview with Windspeaker on April 1.

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The First Ministers Conference (FMC) on Aboriginal constitutional matters is not a failure, since it did not pass anything that would jeopardize Treaty Indian positions, said Gregg Smith, president of the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA).

Smith was commenting during a telephone interview on March 31, on the result so what some called a failure to reach an agreement on entrenching Aboriginal self-government, at the FMC meeting between Native leaders, the prime minister, Canadian premiers and territorial leaders on March 26 and 27, in Ottawa.

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Not all Native groups at the First Ministers' Conference (FMC) on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters were unsuccessful. The Alberta Federation of Metis Settlement Associations (FMS) got their agreement from Premier Donald Getty at the FMC, which took place on March 26 and 27.

Getty made a commitment that the FMS's self-government proposal will be dealt with in 1987.